Put that gleam in your eye away this instant, Lady Asgard.
[Her scoff is full throated, deep from out of her chest.]
I swear to you. Mister Ellis has no inclination. And neither do I, for that matter. [Which sounds paltry even to her ear.] In fact, I may happily prove it to you.
[Happy? Well, perhaps not exactly that. But then again, why not? To speak some word of it does the most happy dual purpose of both legitimizing the arrangement in question (which is vital to the scheme) and proving her word in this moment. And she is quite confident that Alexandrie will forgive the misrepresentation later once the truth inevitably arises.
With Alexandrie's eyes still closed, Wysteria leans slightly forward across the narrow table.]
I should say nothing for it is presently quite secret. I have hardly begun to make the arrangements and in fact have spoken no word to it to anyone else at all. [Lowering her voice to the pitch of conspiracy, she says,] However, it just so happens that I am connected to someone. Someone else. Indeed, he and I intend to see it made legally so very soon.
[ And because she is truly monstrous, she leans forward with an impish grin and whispers loudly: ]
My husband should assume himself invited.
[ She pauses, in case that effects another screech. Then, with a gentler smile, genuine rather than teasing: ]
You glow for him, cherie. Proudly, like he is yours to look after. Like the hurts in his past that have made him shy away from softness are yours to tend to.
[ Her eyes sparkle again. ]
And if he did not wish you to, he should not let you hit him with bricks.
[No shriek, but it does induce a further gasp of sharply inhaled laughter. The suggestion is so dreadfully scandalous that it cedes into the territory of ridiculous rather than offensive and Wysteria, struggling to overcome it, forces herself to choke down a drink of tea to combat the urge to dissolve entirely into mortified giggles.
Fortified by tea and a nip of one of the citrus squares from the plate between them, she masters herself enough to say,]
But all of that is because Mister Ellis and myself share a true and most sincere friendship! It's true there was a time I thought his feelings pointed in some other direction, but we have spoken on the subject since and have found ourselves in complete agreement on the subject. Can other attachments not induce a person to glow as well?
[To borrow Alexandrie's own absurd assessment.]
In any case, we must put the rumor to rest here and now for Valentine has decided to hate him and I can only imagine how the wretched man might use such gossip as an excuse to be even more relentlessly critical than he is already.
[Wysteria casts her a significant look. She can smell that For now in the very air.
HOWEVER.]
He has never said and I have failed entirely to wring the reason from him. I originally suspected some longstanding grudge against the Wardens, but he is perfectly pleasant [--Well. If they are grading on a generous scale--] with Warden Digiorno. So I believe it to be a particular resentment for poor Mister Ellis himself.
[ To the credit of her training, Alexandrie does not immediately visibly revoke the For now, and instead looks genuinely thoughtful as she retrieves her tea.
Hmmmmm. ]
The incomprehensibly irascible Monsieur de Foncé does not happen to be your impending husband of convenience, does he?
[Husband of convenience strays far too close to the truth of the arrangement—the truth which must under no circumstances reach any ear. As she knows herself to be as poor a liar as Alexandrie is an insouciant gossip, Wysteria pauses a moment to take a further sip of tea before answering. So wills herself to he convincing, or to at least use the truth is such a fashion that it is.]
The very same. He and I have been working closely together for some time and have found that we have a great deal in common.
How entirely mysterious that your intended intended might exhibit some unaccountably sharp displeasure specific to the man with whom you share a most true and sincere friendship who visits you each day in an ever so slightly increasingly domestic manner that he will not name to you!
[Wysteria's sidelong Oh please-verging-on-eyeroll look in Alexandrie's look intensifies. But it could hardly do to argue. If the charade is to go without question, she can hardly insist that de Foncé cannot care enough to be laid low by such petty things as jealousy and suspicion.
(Although-- pipes up a very small voice in the very back of her head; rather than give it any credence however:)]
Do you think she would be receptive to such an inquiry? It is, after all, asking her to divulge the feelings of a close friend. I gather the pair of them--well, three including their friend the Chantry Brother--are somewhat inseparable.
[ At the verged upon eye roll, Alexandrie makes a note to mark the day and conversation on her calendar so she might be able to know the exact length of time between today and whenever it is she learns she was right. ]
Oh, entirely.
I cannot guess at her receptiveness, but it is neither as if you shall be making a demand, nor does your asking mean she must answer.
Whether she knows or not, whether she will tell you or not... [ she tilts her free hand back and forth, ] whatever the result, you have more information than you did prior.
Ah. A common theme for our day's conversation, it seems.
[She takes a slim sip from her cup, then announces (quite decided)—]
No, you are right but all the same I think I shall not ask the Baroness. I believe I have elected that I wish to be a very straight forward sort of person who says as she means and asks whatever questions she likes directly of the person in question or not at all. So perhaps I will inquire with De Fo—Valentine himself.
Not that there is anything wrong with the other way of things, of course, [she adds with a swift glance to her friend, the heroic gossip who even now is evidently trapped between two conflicted parties.] Only that I believe I lack the necessary subtlety.
I think it less a lack of guile and more an abundance of forthrightness.
[ A knowing little smile for the swift glance, and she reaches for the teapot to refresh her cup and make the same offer of refill to Wysteria that had been made her. ]
Having lived the near entirety of my life in a way in which subtlety truly is a necessity, I find it extremely refreshing and one of my very favourite things about you.
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[Her scoff is full throated, deep from out of her chest.]
I swear to you. Mister Ellis has no inclination. And neither do I, for that matter. [Which sounds paltry even to her ear.] In fact, I may happily prove it to you.
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There, it is away.
[ From her eyes, at least. Her smile contains the same pleased mischief. ]
What happy proof shall I have?
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With Alexandrie's eyes still closed, Wysteria leans slightly forward across the narrow table.]
I should say nothing for it is presently quite secret. I have hardly begun to make the arrangements and in fact have spoken no word to it to anyone else at all. [Lowering her voice to the pitch of conspiracy, she says,] However, it just so happens that I am connected to someone. Someone else. Indeed, he and I intend to see it made legally so very soon.
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How Orlesian of you! Arranging for a husband of convenience and patiently domesticating a Warden!
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[Appalled, mortified, delighted. Definitively: a shriek.]
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What? I am proud! I shall tell no-one.
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[But she is laughing, all (horrified) good humor.]
You are truly monstrous, Lady Asgard. I take it as an infringement upon my very honor.
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My husband should assume himself invited.
[ She pauses, in case that effects another screech. Then, with a gentler smile, genuine rather than teasing: ]
You glow for him, cherie. Proudly, like he is yours to look after. Like the hurts in his past that have made him shy away from softness are yours to tend to.
[ Her eyes sparkle again. ]
And if he did not wish you to, he should not let you hit him with bricks.
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Fortified by tea and a nip of one of the citrus squares from the plate between them, she masters herself enough to say,]
But all of that is because Mister Ellis and myself share a true and most sincere friendship! It's true there was a time I thought his feelings pointed in some other direction, but we have spoken on the subject since and have found ourselves in complete agreement on the subject. Can other attachments not induce a person to glow as well?
[To borrow Alexandrie's own absurd assessment.]
In any case, we must put the rumor to rest here and now for Valentine has decided to hate him and I can only imagine how the wretched man might use such gossip as an excuse to be even more relentlessly critical than he is already.
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Très dramatique! Does he give any reason for such enmity?
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HOWEVER.]
He has never said and I have failed entirely to wring the reason from him. I originally suspected some longstanding grudge against the Wardens, but he is perfectly pleasant [--Well. If they are grading on a generous scale--] with Warden Digiorno. So I believe it to be a particular resentment for poor Mister Ellis himself.
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Hmmmmm. ]
The incomprehensibly irascible Monsieur de Foncé does not happen to be your impending husband of convenience, does he?
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The very same. He and I have been working closely together for some time and have found that we have a great deal in common.
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[ So strange!
(Tea sip.) ]
Have you asked the Baroness Haut-Brion?
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(Although-- pipes up a very small voice in the very back of her head; rather than give it any credence however:)]
Do you think she would be receptive to such an inquiry? It is, after all, asking her to divulge the feelings of a close friend. I gather the pair of them--well, three including their friend the Chantry Brother--are somewhat inseparable.
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Oh, entirely.
I cannot guess at her receptiveness, but it is neither as if you shall be making a demand, nor does your asking mean she must answer.
Whether she knows or not, whether she will tell you or not... [ she tilts her free hand back and forth, ] whatever the result, you have more information than you did prior.
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[She takes a slim sip from her cup, then announces (quite decided)—]
No, you are right but all the same I think I shall not ask the Baroness. I believe I have elected that I wish to be a very straight forward sort of person who says as she means and asks whatever questions she likes directly of the person in question or not at all. So perhaps I will inquire with De Fo—Valentine himself.
Not that there is anything wrong with the other way of things, of course, [she adds with a swift glance to her friend, the heroic gossip who even now is evidently trapped between two conflicted parties.] Only that I believe I lack the necessary subtlety.
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[ A knowing little smile for the swift glance, and she reaches for the teapot to refresh her cup and make the same offer of refill to Wysteria that had been made her. ]
Having lived the near entirety of my life in a way in which subtlety truly is a necessity, I find it extremely refreshing and one of my very favourite things about you.
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Well, I am most glad for it for at this stage in my life I doubt very much that I will ever be anything but quite forthright.
[Her shrugs is easy as if to imply that the compliment is of little consequence; her smile however is quite broad, clearly entirely pleased with it.]
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[ Top up delivered. With great sincerity: ]
But I implore you to continue to have no such desire.